Main menu

IndyCar: Las Vegas is 'a recipe for disaster,' Will Power says

October 18, 2011

IndyCar driver Will Power says cars run too close and too fast at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

In the wake of Dan Wheldon's death, Izod IndyCar Series championship runner-up Will Power has told an Australian radio station that the season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was a "recipe for disaster."

"Racing on this sort of track is too fast and too close," Australian driver Power told Sydney's Triple M radio. "When you are averaging [more than 220 mph] and you are inches apart . . . It was a recipe for disaster in my mind.

"I had voiced my opinion over the last few years that when we run on these mile-and-a-half superspeedways with high banking, it creates this pack racing. It takes one little mistake from someone, and the result is never good.

"It is always a hard hit into a wall, it's always a big crash. The formula can be fixed. I am sure they will take a pretty close look after what happened."

"I have been running on these ovals for a couple of years now and your worst nightmare is to end up airborne and heading toward the catch fence," Power said of his own flight that occurred during the 15-car crash at the Las Vegas speedway.

"The catch fence just destroys the car. A lot of guys have had their legs destroyed; there's been some pretty big injuries. So I thought, 'This is it, I am heading towards the catch fence.' But . . . I hit the road first, then went into the wall, then I saw a heap of flames and I can't really remember what else. I was lucky. You just have to land the wrong way and it's all bad.

"Unfortunately, Dan ended up on the catch fence and that's what got him. It was a very sad day for IndyCar to lose a guy like Dan, a champion. It's unbelievable."